Life Is Backwards
by LiebWriteBreathe
Summary: Stephanie's life is just settling down again, but a simple phone call from the foster and adoption services changes everything. Now she has more to handle and is still dealing with what happened a year ago. (This story will feature lots of characters from both series as the chapters go on.)
1. Time To Start Again

"Mommy you are Mrs. Sparkles, Ruby you are Dougle and I am Princess Leila." A small brunette says with all her teddies out on the floor in the living space, the table had been decorated with her tea sets and she had roped in her mom and big sister to play with her.

"Hello my peasants I am your royal Princess Leila and you are to all join me at my royal tea party. You must bring me gifts of cookies and donuts. Chicken is welcome too." She says moving her princess doll before the rest of her toys and making her voice sound as royal as she could.

"Woof woof, woof woof." Her older sister Ruby says moving the dog toy she had been stuck with she didn't really want to play but after being guilt tripped into it she had to play.

"Mommy Ruby is ruining it again. Tell her to stop." She says whining to her mom about her sister.

"Ruby it's just for a few minutes be nice. And Blair don't whine please." Stephanie says talking to both of her girls. She knew this playing together thing never worked. It reminded her of how she and DJ used to be. She would beg and beg DJ to play with her and she would give in just to shut her up but then hated the game she was forced into.

The phone rings from the kitchen almost instantly after telling the girls to play nice. She gets up from the awkward position she was sat on the floor and walks into the kitchen with a dead leg. She was thinking that is the last time Blair gets her to play on the carpet.

"Hello is this Ms. Stephanie Tanner?" A woman on the end of the phone asks once Stephanie had answered it.

"Yes this is she." She says in reply.

"Wonderful, this is Sheila from the family foster and adoption services. You are on our list as a success within prior cases is that correct?" She asks wanting her clarification she was right before going on.

"Yes I have fostered before but not for the last year." Stephanie says a little confused why she was being rang by them again.

"We have two children in our service that are in need of an emergency home. It was a recent situation and we are looking for a happy and stable home for these girls to be settled into for a few weeks. Would you be available and willing to take them in?" Sheila asks with Stephanie's file in front of her she was reading through Stephanie's foster history.

"Say yes mommy, say yes." Ruby says standing next to her all of a sudden and had heard everything they were talking about. She looks at her daughters and sees the eagerness on both their faces.

"Before I say yes would you be able to tell me the ages of the girls?" She asks before confirming she would take them.

"Abbie is six months and Ava-Jade is four years. It is crucial they stay together and I see by your past that you have had many children from families in your care and were all very well looked after." Sheila says sharing the information and using more from the file.

"Please say yes mommy, please I want a baby sister so much please." Ruby says again begging her to say yes.

"I'd be happy to foster the girls, umm when will you be bringing them?" She asks knowing if they were coming she had to get the rooms set up for the girls.

"It will be within the hour. Thank you so much Ms. Tanner, we can't thank you enough for the kindness you bring these children." Sheila says before hanging up the phone, satisfied she had now found a home for the girls.

"Yes yes yes yes. We're getting a baby sister, we're getting a baby sister." Ruby and Blair both say dancing and chanting together with excitement that they were going to have younger siblings in the house.

"We have to get the room ready so scoot your butts upstairs." Steph says giving the girls a gentle nudge up the stairs to the bedrooms.

The three of them spend awhile setting up the bed and a crib for the girls to stay in and making sure that the bedroom was a comfortable and safe place for them for the weeks they were going to be staying.

"If only grandpa were here huh. This place would be spotless." Steph says seeing that her room, her daughters rooms and the living room were all messy. She wasn't really much for cleaning and neither were her girls. Her dad came round as often as he could and every time he would spend it cleaning his precious house that Stephanie had ruined.

"He's working. We can clean for you mommy." Ruby says trying to offer some help.

"Good idea, Blair go clean all your teddies and your princess tea party stuff away in your room. Ruby you clean your bedroom. And I will go clean mine. The first one to be standing in the kitchen after finishing everything will get to choose what movie we watch tonight." Steph says knowing it was family movie night.

The three of them go off in separate directions and start cleaning, though Steph got bored instantly and pretty much just throws the clothes into the closet not hanging them up or anything. Blair spends ages deciding which toys were priority for her to take up, she had small arms and could only hold four at a time, she was playing while choosing being Princess Leila and deciding who was to survive and who had to be sacrificed, this gave her the idea that whoever was sacrificed could go into the bedroom for the new girls so they had a few teddies to hug. Ruby was as slow and bored as her mom even though it was her idea, she put her toys away in the toy chest and then when it came to her clothes hid them under her bed. She may have offered to clean but really hated doing it.

The doorbell rang while all three were still cleaning the rooms upstairs. Within a few seconds they bombarded down the stairs and met before the steps to the door.

"Be polite and be nice to both girls. Remember this is a scary day for them, they don't know you and have just been taken from their family. So they need to know they can be safe and loved by all three of us." Steph says to her daughters wanting to run through the rules with them again. It had been a while since she had last done this speech with them and wasn't sure any of them were ready for that door to open.

"Hi, you must be Sheila." Stephanie says as she opens the door to her a smile on her face as she greets the woman in to her home.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Tanner." She says as she comes in to the house.

"You can call me Stephanie. These are my daughters Ruby and Blair." She says introducing the woman to her girls.

"Hi, is that the baby?" Ruby says seeing a carrier in the woman's hands.

"Yes this is Abbie, she is asleep right now though." She says placing her down gently before Ruby and Blair.

"AJ sweetie, come in and say hi to the lovely people that are going be caring for you." Sheila says walking back to the door as the girl hadn't walked in.

"AJ, that's like DJ." Blair says to her mom her expression showing how amazed she was at the sensation.

Sheila comes back in holding the hand of a really tiny girl, she had tears staining her face and didn't look up at the family before her.

Steph bends down before her so she was able to get the girls attention while she spoke with her.

"My name is Stephanie, what's yours?" She says always finding when she had children in her care it was better that she ask the name they requested to be called they would respond better to her.

"AJ." She says quietly, it was like a small mouse had spoken it was so soft and delicate.

"It's nice to meet you AJ." Stephanie says her smile still on her face. She was ready to say something else but Sheila started speaking and stopped her.

"I think I will leave you too it. If you have any questions please ring me. I will be back in two weeks to review the girls and update you on the status of their stay with you." Sheila says seeing the girls would be fine there with Stephanie, plus she had more work to deal with back at the station.

"Thank you. See you in two weeks then." Stephanie says leading Sheila out the house again. She shuts the door behind her and sees the four girls and suddenly has a sense of panic pulse through her.

"AJ are you hungry?" She asks thinking of a way to get them to all bond quickly. She nods her head but doesn't say anything or at least Steph didn't think she said anything.

"Ruby, Blair will you take AJ into the kitchen and I will be with you in a moment and we will get some food sorted." Stephanie says wanting to sort out Abbie first. The girls all go holding hands together like they were best friends.

She moves the top of the carrier she was in so she could see Abbie's face and sees that she was awake and just sitting there. She had huge blue eyes that seemed very aware, she stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Stephanie which made her smile. She reaches in the carrier and undoes the hooks and picks her up in her arms so she could go in the kitchen with her.

"So what are we having? Chicken or pizza? And for desert ice cream but what flavours?" Stephanie says going to the usual favourites with this family, it was no different than for when she was growing up the foods that were her favourites were the favourites of her daughters.

"Pizza, and I want chocolate." Ruby says going first putting in her order.

"Pizza, but I want strawberry with sprinkles." Blair says getting in her request out there.

"AJ what would you like?" Stephanie asks seeing her sitting there quietly.

"Chocolate." She says quietly but still not looking up from the floor.

"Okay so pizza, three chocolate, one strawberry and sprinkles and I need to call my sister for milk formula for this beauty." Stephanie says dancing with Abbie on her hips.

She called through for the pizza to be delivered, luckily they had a service that came really quickly so they wouldn't be left waiting long before they could eat. Blair had set the table for them and Ruby had poured the drinks for them all. And was now cuddling with Abbie so her mom could call her sister.

"Hey Steph what's up?" DJ says as she answers the phone to her.

"I have two new girls from the foster system. One of them is a baby younger than Tommy. I'm so unprepared for this, I haven't got anything but a crib for her. I need milk and diapers and a baby feeding table and a changing table, oh Deej what am I doing?" Steph says letting the panic sink in.

"I thought you weren't doing that anymore? Not after what happened last time." DJ says sounding confused.

"Yeah well Ruby begged me to say yes and it's kinda hard to say no when you have someone ringing you up and saying it's an emergency. I just said yes automatically. I didn't even think about what I was doing. Can you help me with the baby stuff?" She asks reminding her sister she needed it.

"Yeah I can help, I will send Tommy round later to drop off what we aren't using anymore and I will include formula and diapers too. We will be round tomorrow anyway just get through the night and everything will be okay." DJ says to her offering the best help she could.

"Thanks Deej, what would I do without you." Steph says so thankful to have a sister that knows how to solve any issue.

The two finish speaking and eventually hang up the phone. She sits there on the stairs for a few minutes after just thinking about everything. She really didn't have a clue what she was doing with these two girls. Though yes she had fostered before, she hadn't ever had a tiny baby and she was normally told many days in advance what was going on and the situation that resulted in them being brought to her. This was all so fast and so unique and she felt too overwhelmed by it. But she didn't have time for thinking and overthinking it all she had four girls who depend on her now.

"Mommy, pizza get it before it's gone." Blair says popping her little head through the swinging door to get her moms attention.

"Don't you dare eat it all." Steph says in a joking tone running up to her daughter and grabbing her in her arms, she tickles her while holding her, getting squeals from her.

"Enough, I'll save you some, I'll save you some." Blair says admitting defeat from the tickle monster attack.

Stephanie puts her down on the seat Blair had been in and takes Abbie from Ruby and sits down herself with the baby dancing and wiggling on her lap.

"You got teeth yet Abbie?" Steph says turning her round to see if she was able to eat any of the food herself yet or not.

"Yeah you have, you can eat just fine." She says giving her a really small piece of the pizza in her hand so she was able to feed it to herself. She looked over at the girls and saw all three of them eating, Ruby was trying to talk to AJ but still not getting much from her yet. And Blair was as normal playing a game making her pizza dance before Princess Leila doll that had magically appeared back at the table.

"Do you three still want Ice Cream?" Stephanie asks once they had all eaten enough pizza.

"Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, Strawberry with sprinkles." AJ say pointing at each of them as she spoke remembering what everyone had asked for. Stephanie forms the biggest smile on her face hearing AJ offer up something on her own, she had been so shy since she arrived but had now spoken on her own.

"Want to help me AJ?" Steph asks putting Abbie down on Ruby's lap again and offers her hand out to AJ if she wanted to help. She takes it and gets off her seat to go and help.

She gives AJ the scoop and let's her scoop the Chocolate ice cream into the bowls for each of them. Then she scoops out the strawberry ice cream for Blair. She hands the bowls out once she had done without Steph even asking her to.

"What movie would you like to watch for family movie night?" Steph asks openly then looks directly at AJ. "Would you like to choose one AJ?" She offers hoping she would be happy to get included.

"Can we watch frozen?" She asks quietly unsure if she would be allowed to or not.

"Yeayyyyyy frozen, frozen, frozen." Blair shouts too excited that AJ wanted to watch the same as she did.

"I guess we are watching frozen for family movie night then." Steph says before a small sigh seeps out, she had seen that movie too many times and is always forced to join in and sing with her daughters. She loved seeing them happy but if she wasn't choosing the movie they were stuck with frozen.

"Steph you here?" Tommy say as he comes through from the front door, carrying a bag of stuff in his arms and a folded up baby feeding table under his other.

"Uncle Tommy." Blair says excited as she sees him entering the house, she runs up to him ready to pounce but stops seeing he hand no free arms today.

Stephanie and the girls walk in with Abbie in her arms. To the living space seeing him there. She places Abbie quickly in the carrier she arrived in, so she could help him. Tommy had now dropped the bag and was setting up the feeding chair for Abbie.

"I wasn't expecting to hear that you had more kids when I got home today." Tommy says sharing that DJ had told him almost instantly as he entered his family home of what he needed to do for Stephanie.

"Yeah I wasn't either. I'll help you bring everything in." Steph says knowing there was more DJ was sending to her. The two walk out the door together and to his car bringing in everything else she was being given.

"How are you doing? Do you think you can handle this right now?" Tommy says as he looks at her worried she may be doing too much too soon.

"Yeah I will be fine. You can tell DJ that if I need anything I will call her, but that I got this." Steph says knowing it was her sister worrying and asking not her brother in law.

"She's just worried, we all are. You've been through a lot the last year." He says setting up a play pen DJ sent for her to use.

"Thanks but you don't need to be." Steph says not needing the strain of her family's worries over her.

Tommy gets everything else built and set up for baby Abbie to use, making it easier on Stephanie not having to deal with them.

"Come give your uncle a hug, you rascals." Tommy says when he was finished opening his arms wide for Ruby and Blair to jump into. They run right into him as he grabs them and pulls them up one in each arm. The girls start giggling and screaming and squirming around as he tickles each one with the hand he wrapped round them.

"I need to pee, I need to pee." Blair says in between her giggles knowing she couldn't hold her bladder anymore, he puts her down slowly but keeps Ruby in his arms. Blair runs off upstairs as quick as she could so she could go pee.

He sees AJ sitting on the sofa alone and then places Ruby down gently to the floor and goes to sit with her.

"Hi I'm uncle Tommy. What's your name?" He says to her wanting to include her in everything.

"AJ. Ava-Jade but I like AJ." She says her voice still so delicate and light.

"That's a pretty name. My wife's name is DJ." She looks up at him a slight look if hope in her eyes as he says that, but doesn't say anything to him.

"You have a great family here to look after you. Stephanie is a wonderful mom, you and your sister are going to love staying here." He says to her a smile on his face.

"I will see you tomorrow AJ." He says as a simple goodbye to her.

"Thanks for bringing everything round for me Tommy." Stephanie says knowing he was ready to go home now.

"No problem. See you all tomorrow." He says giving each of them a quick hug before he leaves to go home.

"Mommy I loaded frozen. Can we watch now?" Blair says having been loading the movie as Tommy was saying goodbye to them.

"You three start watching, I'm going to get Abbie fed, changed and in her crib. I will join you after." She says knowing she hadn't been able to do much with the baby since she had nothing until now thanks to Tommy bring everything and setting it all up.

She came back down once Abbie was safe in the crib and saw all three girls entranced in the movie and quoting it word for word. She just stayed there watching them, she was amazed seeing that her girls had connected with AJ already. It was making her job easier.

"Let's get you three to bed." She said once the movie was over and the credits were rolling. She reads the girls a bedtime story and then each one goes into their beds as she tucks them in, gives them a simple kiss on the head and says goodnight to them. Each of them close their eyes and fall into the dream world.


	2. Tanners Barbecue

"Mommy, time to wake up. The baby is hungry. Mommy, mommy, mommy." Blair says sitting on Stephanie's bed leaning her face against her moms trying to wake her up.

"Blair don't bother she won't move. I've tried this a million times she hates the morning." Ruby says standing in the doorway of her moms room, watching what her sister was attempting to do.

"She will Ruby, watch and see." Blair says knowing she could get her mom to wake up, she had a plan in her mind.

"Go on then prove it and you can have my cupcake I was saving. If not you owe me one." Ruby says making the whole thing a deal as to if she could wake their mom up or fail as was the expected outcome.

"You got it dude." Blair says quoting her aunt with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Mommy Ruby is being mean to me and AJ, tell her to stop mommy." Blair says using a whine in her tone of voice the one thing she knew her mom hated.

"Oh Blair please I can't deal with this right now." Stephanie says her voice barely audible and her eyes only just opening. She didn't want to wake up to hearing her girls were fighting already.

"Told you Ruby, now pay up." Blair says getting off the bed satisfied that she had won and had woken up their mom. She had a huge smile on her face as she walks out and past Ruby.

"Abbie is really hungry mom, I fed AJ, Blair and myself, but I didn't know how to make the bottle for Abbie." Ruby says informing her mom that she had helped her out but couldn't do anything for the baby.

"Thank you Ruby." Stephanie says pulling her covers off and moves so she was now sitting at the side of her bed, still not wanting to get the day started, wishing she could sleep more.

Stephanie eventually gets herself sorted and awake enough to go downstairs and feed Abbie. She was greeted with smiles from the baby as she picked her up, which certainly made things more enjoyable even if she was exhausted.

"We have the family barbecue today, so I want you all on your best behaviour please." Stephanie says while feeding Abbie. "I don't want anyone coming to me telling me one of you has done something you shouldn't have."

"Is aunt Michelle coming?" Ruby asks an excited and eager look on her face.

"No, she's in New York working." Stephanie says seeing the happiness wash away from her daughters face.

"Oh nuts, but I'm a fun girl." Ruby says quoting her looking and sounding really upset that she wasn't going to see her.

"She never comes anymore, I wanna see aunt Michelle." Blair says looking just as disappointed as Ruby was.

"After the barbecue, maybe we can Skype chat with her?" Stephanie says thinking of a way to take the disappointment away from them.

"Yes you're the best mom." Ruby say with a huge smile on her face again that she was going to get to see and speak to her aunt anyway.

"Any Tanners in the house?" A male voice says from another room. Instantly the girls face each other and smile and then jump off the seats and run out from the kitchen.

"Grandpa, grandpa." They both say as they run up and wrap themselves round him in a huge hug.

"Hey girls." He says hugging them both back, a smile on his face for getting that greeting from them.

Stephanie walks in the room with Abbie on her hip and AJ holding her hand.

"Hey dad." Steph says to him smiling as she sees her girls still attached to him.

"Hey Steph." He says seeing her walking into the room and then looks at her quizzically being confused where the other two had come from. "You have new children? Did I miss something?"

"This is Abbie and this is AJ. Unexpected new additions, I'll explain later. Where's Teri?" Steph says changing the subject away from herself.

"Finding a parking space, she will be here soon." He says looking round the room seeing how much of a mess his daughter had left it in.

"I can see you haven't cleaned my house." He says making an observation as he was looking.

"No, you enjoy it too much dad." She says jokingly to him, he always loved cleaning and would clean it even if he wasn't asked.

"Ruby, Blair, AJ do any of you three girls want to help me clean?" He asked though knew the answer he would get.

"No I'm going to play with Princess Leila." Blair says picking her doll up from the sofa.

"Sorry grandpa, I just hate cleaning." Ruby says before picking up the TV remote and finding something to watch.

"I don't know you." AJ says quietly she was hiding behind Stephanie's leg feeling scared all of a sudden.

"AJ that's my dad, Ruby and Blairs grandpa. He's family, you will meet lots of our family today." Steph says telling her who he was, hoping she wouldn't be scared.

"Can I stay with you?" AJ asks her hands wrapped round Steph's legs.

"You can for a while but not all day." Steph says knowing that she has lots of things to do in the day and would need to not have a four year old with her.

Within the next few hours, DJ, Tommy and the boys show up. Max starts cleaning the house with his grandpa, baby Tommy plays in the playpen with Abbie and Jackson sits with Ruby watching TV. Uncle Jesse shows up with Becky and their boys, Becky instantly goes to the babies unable to stop playing and talking with them, loving every second of it. The last to arrive is Joey and his wife Rosie. The house was filling up and they had yet to take it outside, everyone being stuck inside talking amongst themselves. The kids playing and doing what they wanted to do, none really interacting with each other.

"Steph we are all curious how you have two new kids? We all thought you were done fostering." Becky says being the one asking the question most of them were thinking.

"I was, after last year I never saw myself doing this ever again. But it kinda just happened." She says shrugging it off not really explaining much to them.

"How long are they in your care?" DJ asks, she had obviously been the only one Steph had told about this whole thing but was still worried and curious herself.

"Not sure, for now it is two weeks, but if it's longer I will be told." She says again not elaborating on anything.

"Do you feel okay? Can you do this alone?" Becky asks concerned for Stephanie.

"I am alone. I'm a single mom with four girls that need my care. I can handle it okay." She says getting stressed that everyone kept worrying over her. "Let's get the barbecue started." She says getting up from the seat she was on and walks towards the garden.

Tommy starts up the barbecue, Becky, Steph and DJ get the tables set up outside for everyone. Danny continues his cleaning. Joey had gotten the kids into playing a game with him, as he didn't like seeing them all watching TV and not doing anything else. They were all currently chasing each other giggling and laughing and enjoying the time, string spray in each of their hands, each having a belt on with more cans attached to it.

"AJ do you want to join the game?" Joey says stopping for a second as he sees her still hovering round Stephanie.

"I don't know how." She says looking at him her blue eyes looking sad and confused.

"We are playing in teams one team is blue and the other is yellow. Whichever team covers the other the most wins. It's real fun AJ. You can be on my team if you want." Max says joining Joey in getting her to play with them. He was offering his can of spray that he had in his hand.

"Thanks Maxie." She says giving him a smile and takes the can. He picks up another can off the belt that Joey gave him to play and the two of them went together to start playing.

"Howdy Tanner-inos." Is heard behind where Steph was standing a voice she didn't want to be hearing. She turned round as did DJ and Becky and there she was with her daughter in tow.

"Kimmy, what are you doing here?" Steph says her voice annoyed.

"I can't miss the ol' Tanners barbecue." She says a huge smile on her face as she says it.

"You weren't invited." Steph says to her not in the mood to be dealing with Kimmy.

"DJ invited me." She says taking a seat at the table, her daughter sitting next to her typing on her phone.

"I did?" DJ says unsure when she had invited her. "Oh the phone call the other day, I told you about the barbecue didn't i?" DJ asks thinking about when she would have told her.

The girls all sit together for a while talking and catching up whilst they waited for the barbecue to be ready to start.

"Let's get this barbecue started." Tommy says having it all ready finally, letting the women know so they can call everyone else back to the garden.

"Dad, kids the barbecue is ready to start." DJ says standing in the kitchen shouting to get them to all come ready.

Danny who was almost finished cleaning comes downstairs with his DustBuster and stands in the garden doorway. As each child walks towards him he cleans them off removing any of the silly string that was all over them from the game they were playing. Once everyone was cleaned he quickly cleans the floor seeing bits that had fallen off the children as they approached him.

"Dad are you coming?" Steph says ready to sit down and eat with her family.

"Coming, just finishing the cleaning." He says before finishing and joining his family that had all joined together.

They were all sitting around the bench, Stephanie had her daughters sitting next to her, Max and Jackson next to them with Joey and Rosie, Becky, Jesse and Nicky and Alex next to them with Kimmy and Ramona and DJ together. At the point of the table was Danny and Teri with Tommy standing at the barbecue and the babies were sitting with Becky and Rosie.

Danny clinked his cup to gain attention from everyone ready to start his speech for everyone to listen to even if they don't want to. It was his tradition to have the annual Tanners barbecue each year.

'I can sit here and speak all day and no one can stop me. I love that I can talk and talk as long as I want.' Danny thought to himself while rambling on to his family.

'What am I doing? There's no way I'm going be able to look after these girls on my own. What was I thinking saying yes. I wish Zeke was here, he'd hug me and make everything better. I miss him.' Stephanie thinks to her head panic arising through her, starting to feel emotional. She shifts herself in her seat and blinks away the tears she could feel threatening.

'Where is aunt Michelle? Where is aunt Michelle? Where is aunt Michelle?' Ruby thinks to herself wishing for nothing more than her aunt to be with her family.

'Boring, so so so so boring. Why are grandpas speeches so boring?' Blair sings in her head bored and hungry wishing he would stop speaking already. She could feel her stomach rumbling and they always had to wait for him before they could eat.

'I like Maxie he's nice. Maybe we can play together after food? I hope he is my friend.' AJ says in her mind looking at Max who was next to her, a smile on her face thinking how much she liked him.

'I wonder if I can get money for helping look after AJ? Mom always says if I'm good and help out I can get a raise in my allowance.' Max thinks trying to receive more money for helping out.

'Lola's so hot, I know she likes me she said hey to me on Friday. J-money attracting all the honeys.' Jackson thinks having only Lola on his mind.

'I wonder if Steph has any ding dongs in the cupboard? Maybe I can get Blair to tell me where they are hidden. She knows all the hiding spots.' Joey thinks to himself just thinking of cakes and how he can get one.

'I think Abbie just filled her diaper, it's smells. I should excuse myself to go change her but Danny is on a roll today, I don't want to be rude.' Rosie thinks to herself getting an awful smell near her.

'I need another baby, I need another baby, I need another baby.' Becky thinks holding Tommy jr tightly in her arms. Looking directly to Jesse wishing to have mind control so he would give her another baby.

'Im hungry I want to eat that burger not a mush burger.' Tommy jr thinks looking at Abbie next to him.

'Me too I hate mush burgers. I have teeth I want a real burger.' Abbie thinks responding back to his thought.

'Im having an excellent hair day. Everyone is loving my hair today. I love my hair.' Jesse thinks touching his hair lightly, a grin across his face.

'Burgers are so rad man, I wonder if dad would buy us a burger van?' Nicky thinks looking at Alex as the thought crossed his mind.

'Right on dude, and the burgers to sell and gas money. We'll ask him later.' Alex thinks in reply knowing they'd need everything from their dad first.

'I want my phone back, why did we even have to come to this lame barbecue?' Ramona thinks having had her phone taken and put in her moms donut purse.

'Wow Mr. T sure does still enjoy talking a lot. Maybe if I air my feet out he'll stop.' Kimmy thinks taking her shoes off under the table. Realising the most obnoxious smell to the garden air.

'Oh-My-Lanta Tommy is so hot.' DJ thinks staring at her man. 'Woah who let a stink bomb off?' She thinks after having the smell waft up to her nose, ruining her adoration of her husband.

'Even on my day off I'm stuck working with fire. Just once I'd like to relax and play with my kids.' Tommy thinks standing by the barbecue, not having had the chance to relax.

'He's so smart, I love when he does these long speeches. I could listen to him for hours.' Teri thinks staring lovingly at Danny being the only one enjoying what he is saying.

As soon as Kimmy's feet are exposed to them they soon jump away from the seating, avoiding the smell she had just let loose in the garden. Danny grabs his pine fresh spray and sprays it around the garden covering over the horrendous smell.

'Kimmy put your shoes back on, no one wants to smell the back of a horse.' Stephanie says wanting the horror to end.

Eventually they all get to eat, the smell gone and the speech interrupted. They were all laughing together having a wonderful family time. Putting issues behind them and making sure the entire table had a smile.

Steph sees Abbie looking sleepy on Rosie later in and grabs her to go tuck her in for her nap. As she's up there she decides to load the laptop ready to call Michelle. The family had slowly started to come back inside now, the children playing together again and the adults all talking together. Steph sits in Abbie's room the laptop loaded on the dresser and sitting on the rocking chair.

"Hey sis what's up?" Michelle says as she answers the video chat and sees Steph before her.

"Can you come home, I need you." Steph says her voice chocking up already.

"Back up, tell me everything." Michelle says not knowing what the reason was she needed her home so desperately.

Steph takes in a deep breath wanting to hold back her tears that she could feel welling up inside her. She'd been holding back her feelings not sharing with anyone and was now going to share so her youngest sister could be with her.

"I miss Zeke, I hate being without him. I hate that he's gone and I can't bring him back. I hate myself for letting him go. I hate that I'm left as a single mom. I hate waking up every morning and he's not by my side anymore. I hate not having my best friend with me. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it." Steph says tears flowing and anger In her tone at not having him there.

"I haven't fostered kids since he'd gone and now I have two little girls depending on me along with my own two and I don't know what I'm doing. I have work, I'm always busy it's hard to even look after my own girls with my schedule and now I have to give full time care to these new girls and I'm not sure I can do it. I'm not good enough for this. It was Zeke's thing fostering the children, he cherished every kid that came into our care. How can I ever replicate that with these girls. I'm not right for this like he was." She stops again her tears coming heavily again as she speaks of him.

"I need your help. I need my baby sister to come and help me. Please can you come. Blair and Ruby adore you and never stop asking for you. I really need your help, the girls need you just as much as I do. Please Michelle can you come?" Steph asks wiping her tears, practically begging her sister to come back.

"It's my busiest time of year. Fashion week is almost here. That meant I have to finalise everything, get my models sorted, outfits perfected, planning everything out so I have no mistakes when it comes to the shows. I'll be travelling round the world showcasing all my hard work soon. I really don't have the time to come Steph." Michelle says looking uncomfortable, frustrated and heartbroken. She was debating with herself in her mind.

"Why don't you ask DJ to come help, she lives near you right?" She says before stopping herself knowing that's not going to change anything. "Wait if I bring work with me I could maybe spare a month, I don't know how much help I'll be though Steph. I'm so busy finalising everything. But fine I'm booking my flight right now. I'll be there some time tomorrow." Michelle says giving in not able to say no seeing how hurt and upset her sister was. She was never really able to say no to her family, everyone always knew how to win.

Stephanie and Michelle finish having a conversation, talking about everything. Once they had finished and said goodbye Stephanie calms herself and makes herself presentable again not wanting to show her family she had been crying. They didn't need to know how she was feeling right now.

As she walks downstairs and into the living room she sees all of them gathered together. They were all talking and it wasn't until Jesse coughed that they realised she was standing there watching them.

"Sit down honey we need to talk." Danny says guiding Stephanie to one of the seats.

"We heard what you said to Michelle." Becky says starting to explain.

"We've all been talking together about what to do." Jesse says sitting on the table grabbing Stephanie's hands in his.

"We are going to move back here and help you." Joey says coming to stand with Danny and Becky.

"No it's fine, I don't need you to all move back." Stephanie says confused why they were all saying that.

"You're clearly not fine Steph, we all heard you." DJ says giving her a pained look of sympathy.

"You clearly didn't hear everything Michelle and I spoke about." Steph says standing back up out of the seat.

"I appreciate that you all want to help really I do. I honestly couldn't have gotten through the last year without you all. But I asked Michelle to come and help me. She's flying in tonight and is going to be staying for a month. The girls need her, they always ask for her to be here so right now I think she can help us all out." Stephanie says filling in the gap she was assuming they hadn't heard.

"Nothing else needs to change okay? Deej I know you are only a phone call away and you or Tommy will always help me, I just have to ask. Dad, as long as you help with the cleaning still I'm okay. If I need a babysitter Becky, Joey I know you will both be right there to look after the kids. You always are. And Jesse if I need a friend and someone to cry on your shoulder is always available. I love you all but don't stop your lives just for me. I'm okay really."


	3. Enter Michelle, Welcome Chaos

_**A/N: sorry for not updating this story for a while, I had most of it written and then got side tracked with life. I finished it and will also be working on my other stories if you read any of them. I'm so sorry for the long delay, I will try and update quicker.**_

Stephanie is standing in the kitchen, still sleepy and wishing she was fast asleep in her bed. She had set the table up, made lunches for the girls and was now making breakfast for them. She was holding baby Abbie in one arm, talking to one of her artists about work later that day and still monitoring the food so it didn't burn. She was already stressed out having this amount of tasks to do this early in the morning, plus unsure what she was going to do with work and the two young girls at home all day.

"Blair, Ruby, AJ. Come down and get your breakfast." Stephanie yells knowing it was almost done now and they were on a tight schedule already.

"We're doing the next two songs for your album today. I have the team coming and we will be working through the entire day." Stephanie says to her artist on the phone.

"Girls hurry up you've not got long until carpool comes and you need to eat first." Stephanie yells as none of her girls had come downstairs.

"I will see you at 9:30 we will go through the songs together and then the team will be here at 10:30 and we will start recording." Stephanie says ending her phone call and putting her phone down on the counter.

"Okay Abbie let's put you down in your seat." Stephanie says placing her down giving her a bowl of her food and freeing her arms so she could serve the breakfast for the girls.

"AJ, Ruby, Blair get your little butts down here you need to eat before school." Stephanie yells once more standing at the bottom of the kitchen stairs.

"Coming mom. AJ was crying we were trying to make her better. She's okay now, we made her laugh." Ruby says walking down the stairs first. A few seconds later a tear stained AJ comes down the stairs with Blair holding her hand.

"Breakfast is served Blair, Ruby eat up quick, carpool will be here any minute." Stephanie says placing waffles down on plates and putting them on the table for the girls to eat.

"Is aunt Michelle coming today?" Blair asks shoving waffle into her mouth.

"Yes she is but she didn't say what time she would be here." Stephanie says sitting at the table with her girls.

"I want to stay here today and play with aunt Michelle." Blair says her voice going into an almost whine again.

"You are going school, aunt Michelle will be here when you come home." Stephanie says not even listening to her whining.

The carpool pulls up outside the house and beeps their horn to say to the girls to go. Just as the front door in the living room opens.

"Sis you here?" Michelle says walking through from the living room. The instant she walked in it was a walk back to her childhood. She hadn't been home many times since she was 18 and being home to stay for a month was strange. Every-time she came back she was staying in a hotel and not in the house, this would be the first time staying back there since she was young.

"Aunt Michelle, aunt Michelle." Both girls yell ignoring the carpool and running through to topple Michelle down to the seat behind her so they could hug her.

"Woah Baby. You two have missed me." She says laughing a little as she tried to get out the girls arms.

"Blair, Ruby school. Your lunches are on the counter. Camilla is waiting for you outside." Stephanie says to the girls knowing they needed to go school.

"Oh nuts, I wanted to stay with aunt Michelle." Blair says just wanting to be at home.

"You will see her after school. She's staying for a month you will see her lots." Stephanie says hoping they would eventually leave.

"Go, we will catch up later." Michelle says giving both girls a quick hug and pushing them out so they would leave. They both leave though reluctantly and go to the carpool that was still waiting for them.

"This place has not changed much." Michelle says observing the surrounding area. "How you doing Steph?" She says going up to her to talk.

"Yeah dad likes the way he left it huh. And I'm okay I needed you though. It's been so hard the last year and I feel like it's just getting harder. You need to meet AJ and Abbie." Stephanie says as she opens the door to the two girls in the kitchen.

"What happened in here?" Stephanie says the second she walked into the kitchen seeing the mess it was in. Abbie had food all over the place and the table was all practically on the floor. The table was stripped of everything that was covering it, AJ just sat there staring at Stephanie.

"I had a accident." AJ says with a shrug of her shoulder like it was nothing.

"An accident huh?" Michelle says as she bends down next to AJ. "I've never seen such a mess. What do you think about playing a clean up game?" She says offering her hand for AJ to take if she wanted too.

"What clean up game?" AJ says interested but not certain.

"What we do is make it a race, whoever can put the plates and cups in the sink the quickest wins. Then whoever can clean the baby food, syrup, waffles and whatever else is on the floor the quickest will win. What do you say?" Michelle says giving her an encouraging look hoping she would join with her.

"Maybe, but how?" She asks holding her arms out unsure how to fix the mess.

"My dad used to live in this house and I know where he keeps all his cleaning things. I'm certain we can find them if we look hard enough. Shall we go on a hunt for them first? Then we can start our race." She says getting a nod from AJ and she finally takes Michelle's hand in hers. The two go off together to start the search for the cleaning supplies that her dad still kept in the same place.

"Let's get you all cleaned up." Stephanie says picking Abbie up from the high chair. They go upstairs and starts changing her out her now messy clothes and cleaning the mess her hands and face were now in.

Downstairs Michelle and AJ were starting the race both picking up plates, cutlery and cups that had once been on the table and putting them in the sink to get cleaned. The whole time they were doing it Michelle kept watching her to make sure she was okay.

"That's all the plates and stuff. You win, you were so quick. Phew I'm tired." Michelle says fake wiping her forehead to show she was tired from the work.

"Now the muck. You're bigger, you'll win this one." AJ says picking up the exact same things that Michelle was picking up so they could clean. They both had a pair of gloves on that were too big for both of them, a spray bottle, sponges and kitchen wipes so they were able to clean up the floor. Michelle had also got a bucket so she could chuck the chunks of food into it.

"Let's go." AJ says bending down to the floor to start cleaning, she just watched what Michelle was doing first as she didn't know what to do, but then learnt to spray the muck and use the sponge to wipe it off.

"Freeze." Michelle says as she heard the stairs and knew Stephanie and Abbie were coming back down.

"What why?" She says before she got to the last step and peeped her head round.

"The floor is drying. Don't even think about putting your feet on this floor just yet. Wait I have an idea." Michelle says as she grabs a few sheets of kitchen tissue and places them at the end of the stairs. "Now you can go." Michelle says so Stephanie was able to move again, though it was too difficult.

"You're still like dad with your cleaning huh?" Stephanie says seeing everything out on her kitchen floor and how Michelle was.

"No, I have a maid do the job in New York." Michelle says grabbing pieces for herself so she could get up from the crouch position she was on still. "I still know how to clean and your kitchen was messy."

"AJ put your sister in her playpen and you go play upstairs, the girls both have lots of toys you can play with." Stephanie says handing Abbie over to AJ. She does as was asked and leaves Michelle and Stephanie alone for a bit.

"That little girl is adorable, but clearly trouble in the making." Michelle says as the two of them walk through to the living room together.

"Yeah, what did she even do to make it so messy?" Stephanie says agreeing with her then wondering what exactly had happened.

"She said Abbie started throwing her food everywhere and she was trying to stop her. That's all she told me." Michelle says sitting down in an all too familiar sofa. "You still have the sofa? No way!"

"Okay, I will talk to her about that later find out the truth. I know dad is still attached to everything we grew up with. So how is the fashion business?" Stephanie says changing to topic to her life.

"Crazy, I have so much left to do and it's actually nice relaxing with you for a few minutes. I'm pretty used to having three phones, my laptops, iPads on and buzzing every second plus having many people surrounding me. It's not easy to get time to relax with this job, but I wouldn't change it ever." Michelle says sharing a small portion of her current life with Stephanie.

"And I thought my life was crazy Huh. Are you sure you don't mind helping me out? You sound kinda busy." Stephanie says sounding unsure all of a sudden thinking Michelle was going to change her mind and be too busy.

"It's fine, I promised you a month and I will help you for that month. I will be working from here, but it's okay. I will just be needing more phones and laptops to get my work done and talking to everyone that way. Nothing to worry about." Michelle clarifies knowing she would manage no matter how much work she had to get done.

"So what do you need from me today?" Michelle asks thinking that she was obviously going to have stuff to do all day.

"Look after Abbie and AJ, keep them entertained and fed all day. When Blair and Ruby come home, make sure they do their homework and are fed. Are you sure you are okay doing this?" Stephanie says panicking that maybe she didn't want to do any of these things.

"You got it dude. What about you? Where are you working today and do you need anything?" Michelle asks unsure what the situation with Stephanie was.

"Working from home today, we have the recording studio downstairs again like when we were kids. So I will be pretty busy all day. Just like when we were young if the red light shows that means don't even think of disturbing us." Stephanie says informing Michelle of what the situation was for her day.

"Have you got ice cream and cookies? I need them while I'm working." Michelle asks thinking what she needed.

"Yeah fridge and the furthest cupboard to the right." Stephanie says shaking her head a little that Michelle still ate the same as when she was a kid.

Michelle starts getting everything out her laptops out on the table and turning them on, she gets her phones out and turns them on placing them on the small table next to the sofa. She loads up her iPad and places that down on the sofa between her and Steph. She gets up from the sofa and walks into the kitchen getting her ice cream and cookies placing them down next to the laptops and then gets her huge folder she had placed with all her bags down when she arrived.

"Woah baby what is in that thing?" Stephanie says seeing it in Michelle's hands. It was bigger than Michelle and she had no clue what was in it.

"My sketches, schedule, contacts, my life. I keep pretty much everything I need in here. It's how I know what to do and what has been done and who and when I need to talk to people." Michelle says unzipping the huge folder opening it up to show lots of sketches at the front.

The door bell rings a few minutes after, Stephanie had just been watching and seeing what Michelle had been doing asking her questions every so often. She gets up to get the door knowing it was going to be her artist ready to run through the songs before recording them.

"Hey Shayna, come in." Stephanie says opening the door and letting her enter. The instant Shayna is in the room she starts to freak out.

"No way, you're...you're...you're Michelle Tanner." She says starring face to face with Michelle.

"Duh." She says while starting to sketch on one of her unfinished designs.

"I love your clothes, I'm wearing one of your dresses right now. You're my favourite designer." Shayna says still fangirling over her. Michelle looks up for the first time and smiles at her seeing her actually wearing one of her dresses.

"We have to go rehearse now Shayna." Stephanie says trying to guide her out the room and then goes into the kitchen expecting her to have followed.

"What are you working on? Can I see any of your new designs?" She asks desperately so excited she got to meet her and see her designing up close.

"Wait til fashion week then you can see everything." Michelle says not willing to share her work with her.

"Shayna basement now. We have to have the songs perfect before you record." Stephanie says from the kitchen after having sorted out drinks for everyone for when they arrived.

Shayna goes in and joins Stephanie in the kitchen and down into the basement where the two of them sit with the guitar and start going over each song and changing things and perfecting each area of it.

Michelle was still working on the sketch and was starting to look into her emails knowing she was going to have lots she had missed while being on the plane and then getting to know Stephanie's additional family briefly.

The front door bell rings again and she gets up to answer it not really knowing who was going to be there. The instant she opened the door she knew what they were at the house for.

"Through the kitchen, down the stairs in the basement. Stephanie and Shayna are already working." She says pointing in the directions for them to all take.

"Thanks." One of them says as they pass by her, the line of people plowing through the house was never ending, as Michelle thought everyone was in and had started to shut the door more people pushed it open.

When she finally got a chance to get back to work she started to make sure to focus on responding to any of her clients and getting everything done. She hadn't ever gone so long without working and was in need to catch up and quickly. When each email was done and each text was responded back she took to start looking through her schedule on what she was still to do before fashion weeks started. She was getting swept up in her work as time was passing her by not paying any attention to the kids that were in the house.

"What you doing? Can I help?" AJ says who had been sitting quietly next to Michelle for a while and was now wanting to help her.

"Huh?" Michelle says stopping reading and looks over to her confused as she didn't know she was there. "Umm, you can help by designing something really pretty for me. Hold on a second." Michelle says as she gets up and moves the small table from the alcove and next to her, she places a piece of paper out and draws a shape on it and then gets some colors from the shelf out for her.

"Can you decorate this dress? Make it as pretty as you want. I can never have enough wonderful dresses to create." Michelle says pointing to it for AJ to know what she wanted.

"I can do that. Do you want it Pink or Purple? Or Elsa Blue?" AJ says finding out what Michelle wants for it.

"Your choice." Michelle says not bothering what it looked like, she had come up with it just to occupy her and thought it would be fun.

Down in the basement Stephanie, Shayna, the band and the rest of the crew were all working hard recording her songs. They stop and start when something wasn't good enough or Stephanie just thought something wasn't right. Meaning they hadn't had as much progress as they wanted, each having a different creative take on what they needed to do.

"No this isn't working. Let's do a take without the music right now. When Shayna and I went over this before you all came it worked and sounded perfect. Now I'm not so sure." Stephanie says speaking through from the other section of the room speaking to everyone about the change from the take they had just done.

"Okay but I thought it sounded great. I think if we just took it down a little like this." A man who was next to Stephanie says while showing her what he meant. "Then it would work, the music is overpowering in just that one part, so doing this calms it and showcases Shayna." He says playing back the song as he shows her what he felt needed to happen.

"Yeah, let's try my way too and we can decide later. If we don't get this done we will be here all night we are only doing two songs today." Stephanie says looking at the time on the clock seeing they had already been there too long and not even finished a full song yet. She was getting frustrated at nothing going quick enough.

Michelle was occupied by phone calls and Skype sessions with her team back in New York, she had one phone to her ear, a face before her on one of her laptops, emails up on her iPad. AJ still sketching more designs for her on all the sheets Michelle had created for her so she was occupied to stop her distracting her while she worked and Abbie had gradually fallen asleep in her playpen.

"I'm back at my childhood home in San Francisco helping my sister look after her children. I know the timing couldn't be worse, but she was crying and begged me, she's had the worst year of her life there was no way to say no. She lost so much in one year and being alone is not easy for her." Michelle says speaking to both the face on the laptop and the voice to her ear.

"I'm still working on everything, I have planned for nearly everything to be moved and done here. I'm gonna need you here soon, the closer we get to fashion weeks. So if you fly down I'll find somewhere you can stay. It's going to get hectic what with looking after 4 kids under 10 to help my sister and then running my empire here for a month. Plus my sister is going to need some time to talk to me and heal." Michelle says speaking to the person in the phone this time.

"Aunt Michelle can we play now." Blair says coming running through the door, school being over now.

"Shhhh, Abbie is sleeeping and I'm on the phone." Michelle says to her not free to play right that second. "Go do your homework, we will play later."

Blair and Ruby both go upstairs a little sad they hadn't had any time with their aunt yet but do as she had asked and start working on their homework.

"I don't know what to do with this Ruby." Blair says taking her math homework into her sisters room.

"So learn how to do it. I'm not your teacher." Ruby says not caring to help her.

"Please help me I can't do it. It's too hard." Blair says whining to her sister.

"Beat it baby brains, can't you see I'm doing my own homework?" Ruby says angrily at her.

"I miss daddy, he always made sure we did homework together." Blair says walking out the room her face sad and tears threatening out her eyes.

"Aunt Michelle, Ruby is being mean and won't help me with my homework." Blair shouts from the top of the stairs tattling on her sister.

"I'll be right back." Michelle says to both the phone and the screen, so she could go sort out whatever drama was happening.

"Blair what is your homework?" She asks when she reaches her at the top of the stairs.

"Math and I don't get it." She hands over the sheet with the work on it, Michelle looks it over and tries to think of a way to help her.

"Go downstairs I will help you in a minute okay." Michelle says handing it back over to her.

"Ruby next time your sister asks for help just help her. It's not exactly hard as you've done it all yourself." Michelle says sighing as she didn't have the time for the drama. She goes back downstairs and picks up her phone again.

"I've gotta go now the kids are home and fighting already, I will call you again tomorrow." She says ending the phone call. "You too, we will speak again when I'm free again." She says looking at the screen ending the chat she was in.

"AJ how many pictures have you made?" She asks knowing what she was planning on teaching Blair.

"Six dresses, one suit." She says having had more out on the table that she was able to color but had yet to do them.

"Okay so we have 6 dresses Blair, if I took 2 of theses dresses how many do we have left?" Michelle, says taking two of the dresses off the pile.

"I don't know." She says looking defeated already.

"Come sit with me." Michelle says patting her lap so she could join her. She sits down still looking sad and confused.

"Put your hands out like this." Michelle says showing her what to do, opening her palms out wiggling her fingers so Blair would do the same.

"You have how many fingers?" She asks her hoping this would be an easy way to start.

"Five on this hand and five on this one." She says looking at her unsure what she was making her do.

"So if I took this hand away. How many do you have left?" Michelle says covering one of Blairs hands with her own.

"Five, I have five left. Can I do the dress one again?" She asks thinking she finally understands what she had to do.

"AJ has designed 6 pretty dresses, I took 2 dresses away and now AJ has how many left?" Michelle says separating the six picture out and holding the two she took earlier back.

"One, two, three, four. AJ has four pretty dresses left." Blair says unsure and looks at Michelle getting a proud smile from her. "I did it, I did it. Thank you aunt Michelle."

"I knew you could. Now go try that homework of yours and if you get stuck I will help you, but i don't think you will." Michelle says helping her off her lap so she was able to do the homework sheet on her own now.

"Abbie stinks, she filled her diaper. You didn't change her once today." AJ says holding her nose from the smell that was protruding from her diaper.

"Diapers make me apprehensive." Michelle says reluctantly getting up from the couch to pick up the baby. She holds her away from herself not wanting that smell so close.

"What's aprensive means?" AJ asks looking intrigued what she was saying, not pronouncing the word correctly as she asks.

"Anxious and Nervous." Michelle says responding to her, she was now walking closer to the kitchen.

"What's they mean?" AJ says again still unsure.

"Scared." Blair says in response but still concentrating on her homework.

"Oh yes the red light is off. I will be right back." Michelle says walking towards the basement.

"Stephanie, we have a emergency up here can you come help sort it out." Michelle shouts from the top of the stairs. Stephanie comes up a few seconds later and could smell the issue that Michelle was talking about before she asked.

"Oh she stinks, have you not changed her today?" Stephanie asks taking Abbie from Michelle's arms.

"No way jose. Left that job for you, enjoy." Michelle says walking over to the fridge looking for something to eat.

Stephanie takes Abbie upstairs so she could change her into a clean diaper. She places her on the table and removes the smelly one and then, wipes her, then places a new diaper on finally making most of the stink disappear.

"That must have been painful all day not having a clean diaper on. We need to work on Michelle so she will change you." Stephanie says picking up a smiling Abbie and holding her on her hips.

"You okay Roobs?" Stephanie asks walking into her eldest daughters room checking on her while she was out of work for a few minutes.

"Yeah, I just miss dad. I love that aunt Michelle is here to help us, but it feels weird." Ruby says who was laying on her bed lookIng at a picture of her and her dad.

"I miss him too. I feel the same it is very weird not having him around. He was the best father to you girls, he adored you. Not one day went by where he wasn't making you smile and giggle. He always made me smile too." Stephanie says a small smile creeping out on her face without realising it as she thinks back to him.

"He would wait for us to get home from school everyday and be crouching down with his arms wide open for us to run into them. Then he would hold us in the warmest hug anyone ever had. I came home today and forgot he wasn't waiting for me. Then I got sad when he wasn't waiting. I remembered all over again that he isn't here now." Ruby says tears falling down her face.

"I know it's hard without him around. But you have these beautiful memories, we all have these beautiful perfect memories of him. We have to cherish them, keep them close to us, close to our hearts that way he is never far away, that means he never left us." Stephanie says tears of her own falling thinking of him. She pulls Ruby close to her for a brief hug, she still had Abbie in her arms who was wiggling between the two in the hug.

"Daddy would have loved Abbie, he would say she was a ball with legs." Ruby says wiping her tears looking at a wiggling smiling Abbie.

"He would, the two would have been inseparable." Stephanie says a small smile on her face again knowing exactly what he would have been like with the baby. "I've got to go back to work soon, want to come watch?"

"No, I want to stay with aunt Michelle." Ruby says getting up from her bed ready to head downstairs. The two girls head down together. Stephanie puts Abbie in her high chair in the kitchen knowing she needed to be fed.

"I've got work Michelle, you okay looking after the girls? I'll be back to put them to sleep later." Stephanie says standing by the stairs at the top of the basement ready to head down for more work.

"I got it, you go back to work. I want some time with my nieces anyway." Michelle says getting plates out from the cupboard ready to feed them.

She places a tub of chicken in the centre of the table, then places plates down and then got a bowl of salad out and put that out too. Then sits down next to Ruby at the table.

"Monsters dinner is ready come and get it." She yells to the two that were still in the living room. They come in and sit at the table with Michelle, Ruby and Abbie who were sitting there too.

"Can we play beauty fashion show after?" Blair says with chicken in her mouth, wanting to play a game with aunt Michelle.

"We get makeovers then walk with pretty dresses on like we are models. Can we aunt Michelle can we?" Blair says excitedly after swallowing her chicken this time before speaking.

"I have too feed the baby first. Maybe Ruby can help before I'm free?" Michelle says holding a piece of chicken in her hands.

"Do I have too? I hate her baby games." Ruby says complaining about joining in.

"No you don't have too." Michelle says making Ruby smile and Blair sulk.

As soon as they had finished eating Michelle prepared the babies food and got her fed while Blair and AJ went upstairs to start playing the game they wanted to play. Ruby stayed in her bedroom looking on her iPad entertaining herself.

"You need glitter in your hair." Blair says after designing AJ's hair how she thought looked pretty and then sprinkled glitter into her hair, making a mess in her bedroom.

"I do you after right?" AJ says wanting to be able to join in too.

"Yeah then we go too mommy's closet and put on her dresses and heels." Blair says the plan for her game in mind.

Blair stares into the mirror she had in her room and makes sure that she liked what AJ looked like. She nodded and smiled happy that she was like a baby model now.

"My turn yeay. Sit here." AJ says getting out the seat ready to start Blairs makeover. Blair takes the seat before AJ ready to know what she was going to do.

AJ attempts too put Blairs hair up in a fancy style but not really getting it too work. She grabs the glitter tub that Blair had used on her own hair and a different one that Blair hadn't used and throws the glitter around the room and round Blairs head, not really reaching the place it was supposed to be. Making the whole bedroom a mess.

"What is going on in here?" Michelle says as she comes up now finished feeding the baby.

"Makeovers." Blair says simply, not being aware what a glittery mess her room was now in.

"Let's stop with the glitter now AJ." Michelle says walking into the room and taking the tubs out of her hands.

"Let's go choose dresses and then we can be models." Blair says grabbing AJs hand guiding her into her moms room.

"Where do you think you two are going?" Ruby says stopping them from entering her moms room.

"Mommy's too choose dresses for our game." Blair says confidently not being afraid of Ruby.

"Go choose some of your own dresses and leaves moms stuff alone. You didn't ask her if you could use her dresses." Ruby says pushing her sister back to guide her away.

"She always let's me." Blair shouts at Ruby.

"I don't care, go back to your own room and put your own clothes on and play your stupid baby games." Ruby shouts back to her getting Michelle's attention, who had been trying to clean up the glittery mess the girls had made.

"What is going on? What are you fighting about now?" She says annoyed that in her first day there the girls have fought twice already, and AJ had made two huge messes already that day. She was feeling more exhausted by children than she did by running her own empire.

"She was trying to steal moms clothes. She didn't even ask to use them."

"We were playing, Ruby stood in front of the door and won't let us in."

"She's such a baby, Abbie is more mature than you."

"I just wanted one of mommy's pretty dresses. So I could be a model."

"I wish you would just grow up."

"Yeah well i wish you would turn into ice."

"I wish you would be shipped to Africa."

"Well I wish you would turn into a spider and I swat you dead."

"Oh yeah? Well I wish it were you that died not daddy."

"That is enough girls. I can hear you all downstairs. Michelle can you take AJ and clean her up. I'll deal with whatever is going on here." Steph says having come up from the kitchen stairs after hearing the commotion that was going on just at the top of the stairs.

"My room now." She says pointing to the bed so both girls would sit down. Both girls were crying after their fight got out of hand.

"I never thought I would hear you girls be so ungrateful and mean to each other. Especially after what we have been through. It's one thing to fight, but to say you wish your sister was dead. Ruby I'm appalled that you would even think something so horrible." Stephanie says her face looking grave at everything she had heard. She goes and sits down on the bed in between her daughters.

"From the second we were told what happened to your dad it's been hard. We've struggled for a year with grief and hurt and loss. It's not been easy but we've always always had each other. Please don't change that, we could lose each other at any time like we lost him. Before you two fight or say something mean to each other think about it, think about if there is a better way to get your point across. Don't be saying you wish each other were dead, that would break my heart even more if either one do you died." She says pulling the girls really close to her for a tight hug.

"I'm I'm I'm sorry mommy, I was angry at Blair. I didn't mean it, I don't really want her dead." Ruby says through her sobs.

"I don't really want you too be a spider so I can kill you either." Blair says knowing she'd said about killing her aswell.

"Good, we should never think that about our family no matter how angry we are. Do you understand that? Never." Steph asks getting small nods from both the girls.

"Life is different without him, here everyday I know that, everything makes us think of him, remember him and wish he was still here making us laugh and smile, to give us one of his warm hugs, too protect us from any troubles, scares or worries we had. He was there to greet you after school, to play with you, do your homework with you and stopping the two of you from fighting before it happens. He took in many scared and lonely children as he had such a huge caring heart." She stops and pauses her tears coming just think of him, of all the good he did for their family.

"Everything is much harder now that he has gone, now that his love and hugs are not around to protect us. I know your hearts still hurt, the space for him feels lost and painful, that you wish he was there waiting with his goofy smile and open arms whenever we needed them." She says smiling and crying at the same time, his image in her mind.

"He's still here, he's in our hearts and in our thoughts and there are little things all around us, to be reminded of him. It's not the same, but he never fully left us. For me when I look at you two I see him. You both look just like him, you have so many of his qualities, I know when I look at my beautiful girls I see him smiling back at me." She looks at both girls seeing so much of their father in them. They both look up at her and smile, loving that she said they reminded her of their dad.

"When Blair was trying to come in your room, I was angry as I wanted to go in your room too look at pictures of him. I love being able to see him again, to think about how much he loved us. She was going to ruin my time with him by coming in, I just got really upset and was mean to her. I'm sorry Blair." Ruby says her tears falling down her face, confessing what she was doing and apologising for being so mean.

"I miss the way daddy used to play with me. He didn't mind my games, he just played with me and laughed and had fun, he didn't care if I wanted to play model makeover or play with my dolls or have princess tea parties. I wish Ruby would play with me like daddy did then I'd feel better and not so alone." Blair says her already sad teared up face turns to a sulk.

"Maybe you two could think of a game that both of you can do together and include AJ, something your daddy played with you both. I know you are different ages, you like different things and that it's not always fun having your little sister bugging you. I was an older sister too Ruby, and I was also a little sister Blair, that didn't know when to leave my big sister alone. But no matter how much you don't want the other around you have too find time for each other. One day you will get on and be best friends." Stephanie says trying to find a way to solve the problems. Sharing her old childhood issues with the girls.

"For now you go and play in your how rooms. And we will try again tomorrow. I'm not working tomorrow so I can give you both more attention that you want." Stephanie says giving the girls hugs.

"I love you both so much. Now go to your rooms and I will be in too tuck you in later." Stephanie says helping the girls get off the bed separating the two of them for the night.

-x-x-x-

That night continues with Stephanie wrapping up everything in the studio, the team finally finishing both songs and agreeing in everything. Michelle spends the time cleaning the glittery mess as best she could, and playing a small game with AJ and Blair a less messy one.

Steph does as she said and tucks the girls into bed ending the chaos that the day had brought. She sits downstairs with Michelle for a while watching her work on her sketches and just letting herself relax, neither speaking to each other. She stays there until she herself went to bed, too exhausted to carry on.

Michelle was busy finalising her sketches, responding to emails and texts once more. Ringing up her assistant and other members of her staff, not stopping for anything, now falling farther behind on her work than she should have been if it weren't for looking after the kids all day. It was already a rocky start and an unpromising sign of how behind she will be for fashion weeks. She knew though that her family was important and they needed her right now.


End file.
